Update From Jill

Jill writes-
We had a very fun afternoon at Mark & Jennifer Landes' home for a barbecue yesterday. The weather was so beautiful and made us all excited for summer. As you can see in the videos, the group is so calm...easily ready for another member of the family!! :) The kids had a great time riding around the lawn on the mini-quads and searching for snakes. Chloe found two.

As far as any signs of labor, it seems that everything has quieted down so much that I think I will end up going until Thursday for our induction. It's crazy. I thought for sure that I would have delivered by now, but doesn't every pregnant woman think that??

If I am not contracting, I am comfortable, so I feel I can wait until then. The only time that I feel like I'm at the end of my rope is when I am having false labor, very uncomfortable for three or four hours, then to have it stop. I start to gear up emotionally, then have to wait some more. It's a little frustrating. However, I do feel I am as emotionally ready as I'll ever be! With all the kids and activity going on, I haven't had much time for contemplation, I admit. We're very busy. But it's ok....I know I am prepared by the Lord and being held up by all of your prayers and well wishes. Thank you all so much!

The Whittemore's will be going to a hotel on the day of delivery so they can have some family time with the new baby. The plan is that we'll come together each day so all of us and the extended family & friends can to get to know him a little, too.

So, keep checking back...we'll have news for you soon! Love, Jill

It's A Beautiful Day in Washington

The Whittemore family had such a great day yesterday in downtown Seattle. Here is a picture of us at Pike Place Market, where we bought beautiful fresh flowers, fresh monk fish, clams, fresh jam, and the biggest artichokes you've ever seen! We went to the Seattle Aquarium as well. We returned home and Jill was in bed sleeping. She started to feel ill in the afternoon. We were all a little nervous she might be getting the flu because Ryan and her little girl Lindsay have had it in the past week. Thank goodness she woke up feeling great this morning. No contractions to report. We have a scheduled induction next Thursday and just may make it until then.
Tim and I were talking last night about how we need to mentally prepare that this is really going to happen. It feels kind of like we're up here for vacation and we are reminding ourselves that we will be leaving with a new family member! The car seat is empty in our rental car . . . soon to have a new Whittemore occupying it. The four of us are sleeping in the basement in the kids play area. Last night Christian woke us up a few times and it was so painful because we were really tired. A voice in my head is saying, "Get ready. You haven't seen anything yet!"
Ryan and Jill's oldest son, Ben, has a baseball game in a little while and then Mark and Jen Landes have invited us over for a barbecue this afternoon. Thank you for checking in on us. I promise that one of these days the blog will read that a baby has been born:).

No Baby Yet

Jill is taking a walk right now with her good friend, Lori DiMonda. Once again the contractions started to spread out around 11 p.m. I was happy we didn't all have to go to the hospital in the middle of the night, but Jill is getting tired of the starting and stopping. I don't blame her, especially because they are getting stronger and more painful. It's hard to watch her in pain, knowing she's doing this for us . . . very hard. We watched Juno together last night with Ryan and Tim. It was so exciting when the baby boy was born at the end and then you see Juno crying. She's so happy for the adoptive mom, but she just gave this child life and in this there are feelings and emotion. Even though we are the biological parents, Jill is giving life to our baby and I'm sure the emotions will be similar.

Tim and Chloe and Christian and I are heading to Seattle for the day. We'll pack a suitcase for the hospital in case we need to head straight there. It's going to be a "mostly sunny" day and we're looking forward to eating by the Pier and going to Pikes Place Market. We will keep you posted!

Contracting

It is 8:53 Washington time. Tim and the kids just pulled out of the parking garage at the Seattle airport and they are headed here. To say I can't wait to see them is an understatement. I haven't seen them in almost 7 days, which is a record for me. Jill has been gone since 5:30 this evening. She took Ben to his baseball practice and his ear started to hurt, so she decided to take him to urgent care. Sure enough, he has an ear infection. Jill sent me a text message while in the waiting room alerting me that she was contracting. I asked her to text me every time she had one- six minutes later my message says, "Now." After 7 minutes I hear a chime and check to see another "Now." I've gotten five more "Now"s and Jill just called from the Pharmacy and is having painful ones now. Well, we will either head back to Seattle shortly after Tim and the kids walk in the door or they will slow down once again. We will see . . .

Made it through another day!

Jill writes- We had a great day today. We started this morning with breakfast with Michael Clouse, a friend and mentor in our business.

Our doctor's appointment this afternoon went well; it seems like just yesterday we were here together finding out the Whittemore's are having a boy! Though the doctor thinks I will most likely deliver before then, we set a date for an elective induction on Thursday, May 1st.

After our appointment, Jodi and I had a great Sushi dinner in downtown Seattle and I started to contract quite a bit again. Jodi began to time them for the next hour and they again started to spread out.

Below is a short clip of my doctor listening to the heartbeat and trying to figure out what position the baby is in . . .

Things Are Quiet

Things have been quiet since our Saturday night episode. Jill will be 38 weeks tomorrow and I'm excited about every day the baby stays inside her wonderful womb! All three of her kids were born by now and both of mine would have been born two weeks ago. Every day is more fat on the bones and a better immune system (which we'll need flying on a plane right away). We would appreciate your prayers for a safe and uneventful delivery. I miss Tim and the kids and can't wait to see them in two days. I have been having a great time with the Ellis family. Jill and I are off to Bible Study, lunch, and pedicures with friends. Blessings to you . . .

"False Alarm" Affects At Least 175 People

Just a couple of hours after I posted yesterday Jill said she was feeling queezy. Though this is a common symptom that your body is preparing to labor, she wasn't contracting and figured she may be getting the flu. Ryan, who is a pilot for Alaska Airlines, left for a scheduled 3 day trip that was to start at midnight with a flight to Dallas. You've probably guessed what happened. Jill began contracting every 5 to 7 minutes and we were timing them. We realized that we didn't have our bags packed for the hospital and started packing some things we didn't want to go without. The contractions continued and we contacted Jill's mom to be on stand-by in case we were to leave for the 45 min-1 hour drive to the hospital. At 11 p.m. we called Ryan and told him what was going on. He was already at the airport and called his company's scheduling department and told them he couldn't fly. He headed home hoping a substitute pilot could be found right away. Well, we found out today that wasn't the case. They cancelled the flight and you can imagine there probably weren't any other flights at midnight that could take the passengers to their destination. I can only begin to wonder who slept in the airport, who turned back home, and who had to go to a hotel. We feel badly about it and hope we don't have to make that call again :). As for Jill, the contractions started to spread out shortly before Ryan got home. Though she was still contracting every 10-15 minutes, we decided to go to bed because it was 1:30 a.m. and we were exhausted. We slept until morning without any problems. Today has been fairly quiet with contractions about every hour. We will see . . .